Wars Sideshow

'My Pal Drojti Was Stationed At The River Tunnel That Connects To Our Hydroelectric Power Station When The Serbs Came Thru It,' Declared Our Host, Ante.

While the United States marks ten years after the attacks in N. Y that led straight to two wars and fundamental changes in how American citizens view their security, Croatia solemnly recollects the 1991 incursion of Serbian troops and shelling of one of their most adored cities, Dubrovnik. That started a two-year war on their own soil.

"My mate Drojti was stationed at the stream tunnel that connects to our hydroelectric power station when the Serbs came thru it," announced our host, Ante. "He ran down the hill, leaped into the ocean and swam the twenty kilometers to the old city.

"The folk who couldn't leave Dubrovnik went into the old town because they believed the Serbs would never attack it," Ante continued, with resentment in his voice. "But over two thousand shells struck the town, and 68 % of the buildings had damage, some absolutely gutted by fire."

As Cheri and I walked thru the ancient city, over stone streets that were laid centuries gone, it was tough to imagine the elimination. Just when we saw the Serbian television photographs did the actuality sink in. Now, lovingly and accurately rebuilt, Dubrovnik is once more a wonderful representation of medieval life. And families still live there, doing most of the same stuff they did way back. Only now, the Universal Teenager can be found even here. While Ante gave us an individual history lesson, a group of younger people mooched noisily by, dressed just about the same as in the United States, earbuds connected into their smartphones, giggling at us tourists.

"What's the economy like now?" I asked Ante.

"Not so good," he answered. "After the war, we had to rebuild our industry, but many of our folk had sold their property and left to the U.S, to New Zealand, Britain and other places. Many houses were deserted. After 10 years, things started to enhance because Europeans began to build houses here, start businesses, and tourists returned. Then in 2008, the worldwide economic recession just put everything into reverse. Tourism is just beginning to improve. But we need alternative sources of industry."

I was thinking about the population emigrating, guessing that a lot of them would be younger folks, those who had not started a family. Looking at the shocking natural sweetness of the Dalmatian coast, I could see it had been a place of great nourishment for the adult soul and truly uninteresting for youngsters.

Ante confirmed this was indeed the case.

"Our youth are not staying in enough numbers to create our future growth," he revealed. "Many of them are getting degrees in economics and business, but there are few growing industries here to employ them."

This same story was repeated by Samoj (he liked to be called "Sam"), a person we shared drinks and a table with in Korcula, another walled city on an island of the same name further north. Sam is a Slovenian, trained as an attorney and historian, working for a research institute in his home country of approximately 3,000,000 people. We were fortunate to have such a convincing source of info, and we took advantage of it.

"So, Sam, what was the civil war about?" I asked. "It was portrayed by our media as an ethnic war, that supposed ethnic 'cleansing ' was what the Serbians were after."

Sam explained, "Well, actually , Serbs, Slovenians, Croats and Bosnians are ethnically matching. We share the same traditional roots returning to the time of the Illyrians who formed the 1st regional identity beyond small tribes about 3,000 years ago. The conflict goes back to when the Roman Empire split up and was split between an eastern area and a western one. When that happened, Catholicism under a Roman pope ruled the western empire, while the Eastern Orthodox Church was primal in what came to be called the Byzantine Empire. The orthodox religion does not recognize the pope as the representation of Jesus ' church, the priests can marry, and the sacraments are dissimilar, among lots of other things. Slovenia and Croatia are on the west side of the dividing line. The Serbian aggression was actually about spiritual 'cleansing, ' and of course, it was about money."

"How did economics play into the war?" I asked.

"Under Tito, when we were all one country, there had been mostly equality across the bigger nation," Sam expounded. "But the area of Slovenia was the economic powerhouse. We had a small fragment of the total population, but we were the source of 30 p.c of Yugoslavia's G. D. P. Croatia had the beautiful coast and many beautiful islands where traditional towns still flourished. Croatia was the tourist mecca for Yugoslavians and many European countries on either side of the Iron Curtain. Ever since Yugoslavia was first made after World War I, the Serbians, who were the most in number, wished to exercise the best influence over the course of the country. When Tito died, Serbian ambitions re-emerged, and their wish to control the 2 richest areas of the old Yugoslavia drove them to occupy when Slovenia and Croatia announced their independence."

It occurred to me as I listened to Sam that Jesus would find it sad if he knew that in the name of saying exclusive rights to his bequest, envious folk would try to take away what others had out of envy and greed. Perhaps he does know as reported tagza.com.
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